Welcome to our 100th pitch deck analysis! This week, we'll be looking at MegaMod's seed stage pitch deck. MegaMod appears to be the gaming industry's newest darling, having raised $1.9 million in funding, raising its post-funding valuation to $27 million. With a mission to revolutionize the game creation process, MegaMod said it plans to invest heavily in refining its go-to-market strategy and testing customer retention and monetization models.
In an industry where creators are often ignored like yesterday's loot boxes, MegaMod has swooped in with the heroic promise of bringing them to the forefront. The first screen of the company's website slightly undermines the knight-in-shining-armour vibe.
Nothing says “we love creators” more than asking you to hand over the rights to everything you create on your platform. Not the best first impression. Image credit: MegaMod (screenshot)
So what is the real story behind MegaMod's presentation that captivated investors and secured $1.9 million? We're going to peel back the layers of this presentation and dig deep to find out if it's a critical hit or just another NPC in the startup world.
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Slides in this deck
The MegaMod presentation deck consists of just 13 slides, which is fewer than you would normally expect, but who are we to judge? Oh, wait, that's exactly what this article is about. Never mind. Let the judgement begin.
Cover slide Problem slide Product portfolio slide Product overview slide Product slide 1 Product slide 2 Product slide 3 Product slide 4 Value proposition slide Traction slide Financial forecast slide Team slide Funding request and usage slide
Wow, four product slides? I'm pretty sure investors aren't all that interested in your product. Ok, let's get started.
There's one nice thing about MegaMod's presentation.
Dedicating 29% of your pitch deck to product slides is not great, and the rest of the deck is obviously not much better either. But there is one good thing about it:
Bold Ambition
[Slide 2] The company seems to think that there are 50 million people who are cursing heaven for not being able to make games. Image credit: MegaMod
Gen Z treats gaming like a religion, not just a hobby. They're glued to their consoles, VR headsets and mobile screens, diving into digital worlds with a passion usually only seen in cult leaders. But this generation doesn't just play games; they build entire worlds, form guilds and swear their way to the top of leaderboards. Gaming isn't just something they do, it's their identity. And despite all this, making games is hard.
Does it matter? I don't know. I've always thought making games was hard, but MegaMod seems to be betting differently. The company claims to be making it incredibly easy for gamers to make their own games through its suite of products. It's an interesting bet, banking on Gen Z's insatiable thirst for self-expression and DIY spirit. Why just play when you can make it yourself?
I love slides that make me question a basic premise, and this slide did just that. But wait, why is it so hard to make a game? Would a game made in a day be any good? I'll reserve judgment, but I have to admit I'm intrigued!
Three things MegaMod could have improved
I've written several drafts of this paragraph, trying to find a silver lining, but in short, I cannot believe this company was able to raise even a cent, let alone a chunk of money.
This deck reads like a threatening note scribbled by someone who forgot their glasses. Important information? It's missing, and what little information is provided is thinner than wet tissue. I've seen better college startup decks.
Looking at this deck alone, it seems like a miracle that anyone would invest in it. Maybe there's something else good about the company, but I'm not sure what it is. Either there's something super attractive about it, or the investor has a wild sense of humor.
Maybe there's something about the company that doesn't get communicated in the pitch deck. Maybe the founders know the investors, or there's some traction or go-to-market mechanics that aren't explained in the pitch deck. But that's what's interesting about this series: I'm not talking to investors or founders, I'm critiquing the pitch based on what's in it, because the pitch should stand on its own.
What on earth is going on with this product?
[Slide 4] MegaMod has built a very robust suite of products. Image credit: MegaMod
Slides 4-8 of MegaMod's pitch deck are an example of over-ambitiousness that would scare even the most experienced entrepreneurs away. Instead of focusing on one product or a few well-developed products, MegaMod decided to try everything and see what stuck. Six products, including a game engine, an AI coding tool, a skin editor, a prop editor, an in-game library, and a social platform. Plus marketing tools (MegaGames), tools for streamers, broadcasting tools, and more. It's like they went on a shopping spree at a tech store and decided to buy everything, one by one, just to be safe.
Startups need focus. Spreading yourself across too many product lines is a recipe for disaster. Any one of these products — a game engine, an AI coding tool, a social platform — could be a successful startup. Each requires dedicated resources, expertise, and a clear strategy. But MegaMod is trying to do all of these things at once, and it's hard to imagine them not losing some or all of them. The lack of a focused approach speaks more to arrogance than a lack of capability.
One could argue that integrating all these tools into one suite would allow them to leverage network effects to create a cohesive ecosystem that is greater than the sum of its parts. But the crux of the matter is that there is no such discussion in this presentation. At all. We can only speculate about how these different products will interact, much less generate revenue. It's unclear what the monetization model for all of this is. Will the company rely on subscriptions, one-time purchases, ads, or even magic beans? Without a clear path to monetization, MegaMod's grand vision feels more like a pipe dream than a solid business plan. Investors will be left with more questions than answers, which is a surefire way to turn off funding.
Where is your traction?
[Slide 10] This is the closest thing the company has to a traction slide, but all I see in it is a vanity metric. Image credit: MegaMod
MegaMod boasts that over 2,500 creators have produced over 65,000 games. On the surface, these numbers seem promising, but upon closer inspection, they feel intentionally opaque, as if the company is trying to distract us with quantity over substance. If the average creator produced 26 games (wow!), we need to ask some important questions: Who is playing these games? Are they any good?
A large number of titles is meaningless if the games don't engage players or generate revenue. Without knowing the quality and popularity of these games, it's hard to assess the impact MegaMod is truly having on the gaming community. The best comparison I can come up with is probably this: the average 3 year old creates 26 drawings per quarter. But that revenue wouldn't be suitable for a venture-scale business.
The next slide ambitiously projects $170M ARR by 2028. This is great, but current revenue figures are noticeably missing. What is the average revenue per player today? How is MegaMod currently making money? And why are these details missing? It's easy to make big predictions, but for investors to believe such aggressive projections, they need to see a track record of growth and current financial position. Without these key metrics, the projections feel more like wishful thinking than a realistic business plan.
Another red flag is where these users are coming from. The Use of Funds slide (slide 13) claims “viral expansion and product-led growth” as the company’s growth strategy, but it couldn’t be more vague. What does this mean? Where are the users coming from today? How does MegaMod drive traffic and engagement? Terms like “viral expansion” sound great in theory, but they need a concrete strategy and evidence of past success to back it up. Truly viral companies are very rare. This lack of clarity is frustrating and does little to inspire confidence in the company’s ability to scale effectively.
Overall, the traction slide lacks real business metrics, raising serious concerns about the founders' understanding of the business. If I were a board member, I would be grilling them about the metrics they are tracking, why they think they are important, and what specific actions they will take to move those metrics. Without clear, actionable data, it's difficult to gauge the true health and potential of a company. Investors need transparency and accuracy, not pretense.
Could the team get any more ambiguous?
I know, I know. I complain about team slides in almost every one of these presentation teardowns. And I'm going to keep complaining until people start making better team slides.
MegaMod's team slides showcase a group of individuals with promising descriptions, but the details are frustratingly vague.
[Slide 12] I'm not sure what's going on. Despite the impression of having a lot of experience, this team's slides raise more questions than they answer. Image credit: MegaMod
This slide is a great opportunity to name a hit game you've worked on, a startup you founded, or a fast-growing success you've spearheaded. But MegaMod offers vague language that feels more like a placeholder than a concrete accomplishment. Specific company names, numbers (revenue and results), and facts are key here; without them, your explanation will be hollow and unconvincing.
“Experience building a $20M revenue business.” Great! Which one? “Up to $8B in revenue?” Wow. But which business? “Experience building a business for 80M+ users.” Yes! I want to invest in that! Show me the receipts! “Launched 100+ mobile games.” Name one! Maybe two! “Experience with a total of 150M users.” Awesome. Which users? Who are they?
Vague claims come across as an attempt to hide something, as if team members had non-disclosure agreements with their previous employers and were avoiding details. This kind of opacity is a big red flag and suggests one of three things: a lack of significant accomplishments, a deliberate attempt to obscure the truth, or simply a failure to understand what investors need to know to make an investment.
The only logical conclusion is that this team is probably such amazing rock stars that I'd look like a complete idiot if I didn't recognize them, but I'm not kidding: if this vague boast were real, turning this slide into an absolute slam dunk would be a piece of cake.
Complete presentation material
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